


This Ain't Rock and Roll

by unveiled



Series: Snippets [13]
Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Derailing, Humor, Interns - Freeform, M/M, Non-Profit Organisations, Our Heroes are Dicks, Politics, Pre-Slash, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-23
Updated: 2012-08-23
Packaged: 2017-11-12 18:05:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/494142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unveiled/pseuds/unveiled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles and Erik are interns at a mutant rights organisation. This is not going to go well for anyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Ain't Rock and Roll

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/gifts).



> For pearl_o's prompt: "Charles and Erik, summer internship at a mutant rights nonprofit." Originally posted at [my Tumblr](http://thoughtsnotunveiled.tumblr.com/post/28437389501/this-aint-rock-and-roll), and the title comes from David Bowie's [Diamond Dogs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1Quz7H93Q).
> 
> **Warnings:** References to domestic violence. Also, people being dicks.

Charles couldn't hear what was being said through the glass doors of the meeting room, but Erik's face as he minuted the proceedings told its own story: an epic, multi-book romance between  _WTF_ and _I Am Judging You So Hard Right Now_. He briefly considered telepathically eavesdropping. Jean was chairing the meeting of the IA strategy team, though, and she had no compunctions about kicking his arse across the astral plane.

"I told you making Erik rapporteur was a bad idea," Kitty murmured to Ororo as they rifled through stacks of folders, looking for the 2005 draft of their Human Rights Mechanisms for Mutants training manual.

"It is his punishment for fucking up PIMS duty," Ororo said serenely. "Alas, Armando has forbidden me from hanging him out the window by his belt loops."

Charles choked — Ororo  _never_ swore — and quickly ducked his head to hide behind his laptop monitor as both women glanced at him.

Kitty smiled. She thought it looked kindly. Charles didn't disagree, but the three-page draft document and the millions of files and tabs he'd opened for research rendered him quite incapable of appreciation.

"How're you doing with the concept note for the roundtable, Charles?" she asked.

***

Once Jean, who was the programme officer for International Advocacy, duly tore apart his draft and sent back her version (in .docx,  _of course_ , because the universe hated Charles Xavier and OSS), the day finally slowed down to a manageable slog. Charles tried to escape to the pantry for a cuppa, but Armando was ensconced at the dining table with his laptop, gently remonstrating a network partner in a tactfully-worded e-mail. He caught something about events scheduling and good faith, before Armando's mutation closed him out.

The HQ of Mutant Solidarity Watch was originally a one-floor open plan office, but bitter experience put paid to aesthetic idealism. They compromised with the use of shatter-proof, temperature-resistant glass to partition out the units: IA, Capacity Building, and InfoCom, where Charles interned under Kitty's bright-eyed supervision. The ED's room sat next to the Admin desk, where Sean worked his accounting ingenuity, facing the office door.

What remained of the original open space at opposite ends of the office were given over to the pantry and the resource centre. There, Erik was currently sulking among shelves of _Human Rights Quarterly_.

"Ororo wants me to write a training module on the Delhi Principles for adolescent survivors of violence," Erik complained bitterly, when Charles came to find him.

"Um," Charles said. "Well, you _are_ interning in CB. And it makes sense they'd want one, because—"

"I'm a law student, not a fucking social worker."

"Watch that tone, mister," Angel cut in from on high, wings fluttering behind her. She raised an eyebrow. " _I_ was a social worker."

Erik pressed his lips together. "Not my specialty. In any event, I don't see why she wants it to include mutants as perpetrators. Why are we even training humans on this?"

"Because mutants hit their partners and children too." Angel jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Get your asses moving to the meeting room, boys — we've been summoned by the Boss. Time for a staff meeting."

Erik made it look as if he wasn't _actually_ scrambling to obey her directive, but Charles was a telepath. He could tell.

***

Armando presided over MSW with benevolent cheer and very likely some form of personal blackmail, which surely had to the only explanation for how they managed to get Logan on retainer as a consultant. It worked out all right for everyone: Logan was a fantastic trainer and always submitted his invoices on time, and the arrangement let him paint wisteria blossoms in Kyoto or wherever it was that he took his paintbrushes to two months out of a year.

"I don't even know why you people are forever draggin' me in for this crap," Logan growled as he ambled through the door, exactly one minute late. Charles ticked off a bingo square in his head.

"Duly noted," Armando said. "Let's start with updates from IA. Jean? Angel? Where are we with the counterterrorism roundtable?"

"Mutantes Sans Frontières is on board as a co-organiser." Jean dragged her fingers through her hair. "I've been liaising with Amnesty about the rest of the invitees — once I send off the draft concept note to them and MSF, we should have a better idea of who'll be there."

"I gotta say, I'm not comfortable with this," Angel said. "Here we are, organising a roundtable on 'meeting the challenges of counterrorism and state security measures to mutant rights', when we're taking money from, you know, one of the worst state offenders. Sure, it's just for one small domestic project here, but we still gotta talk about it."

"Can I take this opportunity," Sean said, "to mention that we're running low on money for our Mutant HRDs at Risk Emergency Fund? I just sent, like, the millionth reminder on funding cycles to everyone. Get on it, people."

"Let us not derail Angel's point," Ororo said. Her bangles tinkled as she gestured gracefully with her hands. "We have avoided making a decision thus far because our financial situation took a terrible hit from the recession, but it is well past time we re-look our sources of funding."

Charles risked a quick glance at Erik as voices rose into a din. Their eyes met.

_WE'RE TRAPPED_ , Erik's eyes (and mind) said.

_Drinks later?_ Charles sent back.

Erik hesitated. _Sure_.

Charles lowered his eyes to his abandoned notepad and pen, smiling. _And before you ask, yes, I am interested in you 'that way'_.

A telepathic warning rang in their heads, accompanied by a very familiar _tsk_. They reddened simultaneously.

_Pay attention to the meeting_ , Jean projected, snippy.

**Author's Note:**

> I fully blame horusporus, my conspirator, because when you get two jaded NGO types and this prompt in a chat, evil happens:
> 
> **thoughtsnotunveiled:** no one wants to put them under the purview of int'l advocacy XD  
>  **horusporus:** HAHAHAHAHAHAH  
>  **horusporus:**  take ur bets who's going to instigate a diplomatic row first  
>  **thoughtsnotunveiled:**  I CANNOT CHOOSE XD  
>  **horusporus:**  they're both so capable  
>  **horusporus:**  in so many different ways
> 
> **Actual trufax story notes:**
> 
> A [501(c) organisation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501\(c\)_organization) receiving US/Australian funding needs to cross-reference people (employees, partners, contractors, etc) to see whether they've been black-listed for terrorism. One way to do that is through the Petition Information Management Service (PIMS).
> 
> ED: Executive Director.
> 
> HRDs: Human rights defenders (see: [UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders](http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/Translation.aspx)).
> 
> InfoCom: Information and Communications, ie. where the research nerds and media junkies hang out.
> 
> Also, I am not nearly as bad with the names and acronym overload in this fic as it is in RL. Just so you know.


End file.
